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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Francis Conway is Swill—one of the millions in the year 2041 who must subsist on the inadequate charities of the state. Life, already difficult, is rapidly becoming impossible for Francis and others like him, as government corruption, official blindness and nature have conspired to turn Swill homes into watery tombs. And now the young boy must find a way to escape the approaching tide of disaster'. Source: bookseller's website.

Notes

Dedication: For John Foyster who gave sound advice.

Epigraph: 'We must plan for five years ahead and twenty years and a hundred years.' --- Sir Macfarlane Burnett

'If spoken now, these words might be addressed by a baby boomer to a millenial. In fact they were said to me some thirty years ago. The speaker was the Australian novelist and critic George Turner. He was a small, wiry, olive-skinned man, his eyes merry behind square bifocals. Despite the warning, his tone was light and ironic. There was nothing nasty about the remark, rather a commitment to telling the truth. For some novelists, the stance could seem unbearably pretentious, or self-aggrandising. For Turner it was neither. He was a kind man in person, and gentlemanly in his manners, although he could also be ferocious, particularly when attacked.' (Introduction)

Utopia and Utopian Studies in AustraliaAndrew Milner,
Verity Burgmann,
2016single work criticism — Appears in:
Utopian Studies,vol.
27no.
22016;(p. 200-209)Abstract'There are no independently Australian translations of Thomas More’s Utopia. Nor is there any equivalent in Australia to the Society for Utopian Studies in North America or the Utopian Studies Society in Europe. Nor are there any extant formal research groups or undergraduate or graduate courses in utopian studies. There are, however, distinctively Australian traditions of utopian writing, both eutopian and dystopian, and also a limited field of Australian utopian studies, essentially the work of individual scholars. This article attempts a brief description of both.' (Publication summary)

How Do We Define the Climate Change Novel?Deborah Jordan,
2014single work criticism — Appears in:
Climate Change Narratives in Australian Fiction2014;(p. 33-40)Abstract'How do we best define a climate change novel? Given the complexities of climate change, as a real, scientific and cultural phenomenon, global warming demands a corresponding degree of complexity in fictional representation. Recent popular debates here and overseas raise further questions about what exactly constitutes a climate change novel. Does a climate change novel need to be set in the present? Or set in the future? Set during the time of climate change and extreme weather events, and the associated food scarcity and water wars, or can it be well after that —such as George Turner’s iconic The Sea and Summer? Are these novels best framed in context of utopian studies and science fiction studies? Andrew Milner has contextualised The Sea and Summer in terms of understanding the history of Australian science-fictional dystopias. For him, science fiction, whether utopian or dystopian , is ‘as good a place as any’ for ‘thought experiments about the politics of climate change’. He rejects the widespread ‘academic prejudice in literary studies against science fiction dystopias’ arguing that science fiction cannot readily be assimilated into either high literature or popular fiction (as genre). ' (33)

Climate Change NovelsDeborah Jordan,
2014single work criticism — Appears in:
Climate Change Narratives in Australian Fiction2014;(p. 15-32)Abstract'Climate Scientists warn of the dangers of global warming. How are Australian writers responding to this crisis? The first section of the book examines the stories by women and men writers directly about climate change scenarios. Notable authors are George Turner and Alexis Wright. ' (15)

Postcolonial Criticism, Ecocriticism and Climate Change : A Tale of Melbourne under Water in 2035Anne Maxwell,
2009single work criticism — Appears in:
Journal of Postcolonial Writing,Marchvol.
45no.
12009;(p. 15-26)AbstractThe difficulty that postcolonial critics have found in opposing the recent, aggressive phase of capitalism known as 'globalization' has led to a crisis in relevancy in the discipline. Engaging with ecocritical discourses is one way to overcome this crisis. Some postcolonial poets and writers are already working in this way, and although historically ecocriticism has posed problems for postcolonial critics, the changes that ecocriticism has recently undergone mean that such concerns are fading. An area of study that is especially promising for postcolonial critics is analysing apocalyptic dystopias that speculate on the dire social and physical consequences of global warming. Taking a text by a leading Australian author as an example, this article argues that criticism that combines postcolonial and ecocritical concepts is able not only to expose late capitalism's crucial role in global warming but also to show readers that the political choices they make now will have lasting consequences for the lifestyles of coming generations. -- Author's abstract

The Fiction of the Future : Australian Science FictionRussell Blackford,
2012single work criticism — Appears in:
Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers2012;(p. 128-140)Abstract'According to Russell Blackford 'commercial science fiction is the most international of literary forms.' He observes that 'Australian SF continues to flourish, even if it trails heroic fantasy in mass-market appeal.' Australian SF writers although published internationally, with a dedicated fan followings in USA, UK and Europe, were overlooked for a very long time by Australian multinational publishers. The international editions had to be imported and were then distributed in Australia (Congreve and Marquardt 8). Blackford in his chapter throws light on the history of Australian SF and observes how Australian SF writers, with their concern for the future, achieved a powerful synthesis in form and content. The progress of Australian SF, maturity of style in the work of younger writers, and massive worldwide sales make Blackford optimistic as he asserts that 'the best Australian writers in the genre will be prominent players on the world stage.' (Editor's foreword xii-xiii)